Citizens Sworn In On The 4th

July 5, 1997|By CELIA W. DUGGER The New York Times

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. - — Many immigrants seek naturalization out of fear of lawsInspired by a love of America and a fear of her fickleness toward immigrants, more than 5,000 people from 108 countries raised their right hands on Friday to take the oath of citizenship on a sun-drenched football field here on Long Island. They are part of a historic wave of citizenship seekers whose numbers have quintupled in five years to an anticipated high of 1.8 million this year.

Another place where immigrants gathered on Friday to take the oath was Monticello, the Virginia home of Thomas Jefferson. Naturalization ceremonies have been a July Fourth tradition there since 1963.

Colin Powell urged 64 new citizens to become involved with community associations, to read and watch the news and to share their views with their leaders.

When Jodi Maxey and her husband brought their four adopted children to receive their naturalization papers at Thomas Jefferson's estate, Powell gave Maxey a hug.

"He told us we had done a wonderful thing," said Jodi Maxey, who adopted the children from South Korea. "I just started crying."

Twenty-nine immigrants became U.S. citizens aboard a special ceremony on the USS Constitution in Boston Harbor, the world's oldest commissioned warship, as did 16 adopted children in Miami.

At the New York ceremony, Maria Aracelly, 55, who came to the United States from Colombia 26 years ago and toils past midnight most nights vacuuming, dusting and cleaning Manhattan office buildings, said she decided to become a citizen after all these years because of her devotion to this country and her worries about what would become of her if she were disabled by a heart attack. She had heard about a law to cut off benefits to old and sickly immigrants who have not been naturalized.

Anxiety over laws to deny food stamps and Supplemental Security Income to most legal immigrants who have not become citizens has helped spur the extraordinary rush of applicants for citizenship. By this spring, more than one million immigrants nationally - almost 200,000 of them in New York City - were caught in a backlog of those awaiting naturalization. The wait in New York has grown from up to five months last year to as long as a year now.

The reasons for the delay include not only the huge surge in applications, but new procedures instituted by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service to screen out those seeking citizenship who have criminal records.

The thousands who took the oath on Friday were in a happy mood, singing along with the national anthem and placing their hands over their hearts for the Pledge of Allegiance. When an immigration official announced that they were American citizens, a soft, joyous murmuring rose from the crowd gathered on the field. Many gave voice to an old-fashioned kind of fervent patriotism Still, many immigrants expressed a duality of feeling: they said they revere America for its great democratic ideals, but are also disappointed that the country's laws have, as they see it, unfairly penalized immigrants who came here legally, paid their taxes and worked hard.

Vladimir Avter, 64, a taxi driver, immigrated from Russia in 1976 and now lives in Brooklyn. "This is the best country in the world," he said. But in the next breath, Avter said, "The laws must be for the citizen and the legal immigrant the same."He is safe now that he is a citizen. He arrived with $98.50, started working a week after he got here, never asked the government for a handout and has always paid his taxes.